Blair concedes, won't seek budget increase

Sheriff Chris Blair made it clear that the sheriff's department has also suffered when it came to budget cuts. "We've lost 150 positions," Blair said Thursday night as he went before the county commission to debate his budget Thursday night.

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Blair, who early on had sought $17 million in new spending, consented to hold his budget at the current level for the new fiscal year, which starts Tuesday. According to the county budget office, that will amount to $74.2 million.

The sheriff was expected to certify in writing the adopted budget today, which means, according to county officials, he would forfeit his right to appeal the board's decision to the governor and Cabinet — which was an option for Blair and something he had not publicly taken off the table.

Despite the deal reached Thursday, which commissioners supported in green-lighting the county's $534 million budget at the second of two required hearings, the county still faces a $3.1 million budget deficit heading into next year.

Blair's original budget proposal would have forced the commission to jack up the property tax rate for all Marion County property owners next year. The board rejected his plan because it believed the local economy was too fragile to handle higher taxes.

Commissioners, to maintain their pledge, identified several cuts to try to plug the hole.

For example, the board committed $1.75 million in economic development grants and $250,000 that Court Clerk David Ellspermann expected to save in this fiscal year to cut the deficit.

As for the remaining $1 million, commissioners immediately reduced that by deferring about $571,000 in spending.

That included about $80,000 in proposed staff raises, about $88,000 for hiring a new assistant staff attorney, $265,000 for a new roof on the jail, $100,000 in new books for the public library and $40,000 in new vehicles.

The board also agreed to use $503,000 in reserves to cover the shortfall.

But Blair, in looking ahead to 2015, maintained to the commission that his agency could not bear the sole responsibility for reducing the deficit. Cuts must come from across all departments, he maintained.

"We are a public safety entity and it's very important that we stay whole," he told the commission.

Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to keep the base property tax rate at the current level of $3.90 per $1,000 of taxable value.

With the average value of a home in Marion pegged at about $67,000, the typical homeowner will pay about $261 in property taxes next year. That does not include levies applied by other taxing authorities.

Yet the solidarity of the County Commission against new tax increases crumbled in order to accommodate Blair.

By a narrow 3-2 vote, the board approved raising the levy for the special tax district that funds the Sheriff's Office's patrol and investigative operations. That tax applies to all property owners in unincorporated Marion.

Commission Chairwoman Kathy Bryant was joined by Commissioners Earl Arnett and David Moore in supporting the tax-rate boost. Commissioners Stan McClain and Carl Zalak dissented.

That rate was set at $3.21 per $1,000 of taxable value, up 14 percent from the current $2.81. It is the third time the tax for the Sheriff's Office has been increased since 2009.

As a consequence, the tax bill for the homeowner cited in the example above will go up about $27 next year.

County Budget Director Michael Tomich explained that money would permit the sheriff to pay for Tallahassee-mandated hikes in the state's pension and health insurance programs.

Funding was also dedicated for the sheriff's share of operating the Public Safety Communications Center, where the County Commission just agreed to hire four new dispatchers to accommodate Blair's change in dispatching practices.

The move was also necessary because the Sheriff's Office, which has lived off its reserve funding since the onset of the recession, has exhausted that account, officials said.

Zalak argued that the tax rate ought to be reduced further with additional money being transferred from the general fund. He said the community's "anemic" economy needed a break from more expensive government.

"Government should be reduced and government should live within its means," Zalak said.

"It's where we are. We've been paying on MasterCard and now we have to pay the bill," Bryant said. "You're just prolonging the problem if we don't do what we have to do today. I don't know where you're going to get the money from."

"Moving forward, I think, it will be the correct course of action," she added.

The budget rift between Blair and commissioners opened in June, when Blair asked for a massive 26 percent spending hike. The other county-level elected officials, in contrast, submitted budgets that on average had increases of about 3 percent.

Ultimately, those officials trimmed their budgets to current levels or less.

Blair cut his budget request, too, halving it from $17 million to about $8 million a few weeks after his initial budget was submitted.

Afterward, he repeatedly announced he would not budge further.

As recently as two weeks ago, at the board's first required hearing on the budget, Blair announced that he made "no apology" for pushing for more money for the agency that he described as undermanned and ill-equipped.

What changed was that on Tuesday, a County Commission task force, named in July after Blair challenged the board to find the spending cuts he declined to look for, released a report setting his budget $2.2 million below the current year's total.

That apparently touched off some hectic negotiating that went on until hours before the commission's vote Thursday evening to adopt the $534 million spending plan for fiscal year 2014.

On Thursday afternoon, the board met in a hastily arranged meeting to discuss claims that Blair made in a letter released late Wednesday.

In criticizing the task force's recommendations, the sheriff had asserted that, under two separate state laws, the County Commission was prohibited from reducing his budget below last year's funding level, and that he was prevented from laying off Sheriff's Office personnel for fiscal reasons.

County Attorney Guy Minter told the board that both claims were meritless.

Minter noted verbally and in a three-page memo he prepared for the board that Blair specifically parsed language from both laws that would have undermined his case.

As for the board's ability to trim his budget, Minter wrote that if Blair were correct, "sheriff's offices would be the only agencies in the State of Florida that could never have a reduction in their budget compared to the prior year."

Obviously, he added, that's not the case, since Marion County, other local governments and the state itself have reduced spending since the onset of the recession.

Minter's findings on the issue of layoffs were similar.

Again, if Blair were right, the Sheriff's Office would be "unique" among government agencies in Florida, he wrote. Nothing, Minter added, prevented Blair from eliminating jobs as a component of the budget-making process.

<p>Sheriff Chris Blair on Thursday agreed to forgo any spending increase for next year, agreeing to an 11th-hour deal that ended his long-running dispute with the County Commission over his budget.</p><p>Blair, who early on had sought $17 million in new spending, consented to hold his budget at the current level for the new fiscal year, which starts Tuesday. According to the county budget office, that will amount to $74.2 million.</p><p>The sheriff was expected to certify in writing the adopted budget today, which means, according to county officials, he would forfeit his right to appeal the board's decision to the governor and Cabinet — which was an option for Blair and something he had not publicly taken off the table.</p><p>Despite the deal reached Thursday, which commissioners supported in green-lighting the county's $534 million budget at the second of two required hearings, the county still faces a $3.1 million budget deficit heading into next year.</p><p>Blair's original budget proposal would have forced the commission to jack up the property tax rate for all Marion County property owners next year. The board rejected his plan because it believed the local economy was too fragile to handle higher taxes.</p><p>Commissioners, to maintain their pledge, identified several cuts to try to plug the hole.</p><p>For example, the board committed $1.75 million in economic development grants and $250,000 that Court Clerk David Ellspermann expected to save in this fiscal year to cut the deficit.</p><p>As for the remaining $1 million, commissioners immediately reduced that by deferring about $571,000 in spending.</p><p>That included about $80,000 in proposed staff raises, about $88,000 for hiring a new assistant staff attorney, $265,000 for a new roof on the jail, $100,000 in new books for the public library and $40,000 in new vehicles.</p><p>The board also agreed to use $503,000 in reserves to cover the shortfall.</p><p>But Blair, in looking ahead to 2015, maintained to the commission that his agency could not bear the sole responsibility for reducing the deficit. Cuts must come from across all departments, he maintained.</p><p>"We are a public safety entity and it's very important that we stay whole," he told the commission.</p><p>Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to keep the base property tax rate at the current level of $3.90 per $1,000 of taxable value.</p><p>With the average value of a home in Marion pegged at about $67,000, the typical homeowner will pay about $261 in property taxes next year. That does not include levies applied by other taxing authorities.</p><p>Yet the solidarity of the County Commission against new tax increases crumbled in order to accommodate Blair.</p><p>By a narrow 3-2 vote, the board approved raising the levy for the special tax district that funds the Sheriff's Office's patrol and investigative operations. That tax applies to all property owners in unincorporated Marion.</p><p>Commission Chairwoman Kathy Bryant was joined by Commissioners Earl Arnett and David Moore in supporting the tax-rate boost. Commissioners Stan McClain and Carl Zalak dissented.</p><p>That rate was set at $3.21 per $1,000 of taxable value, up 14 percent from the current $2.81. It is the third time the tax for the Sheriff's Office has been increased since 2009.</p><p>As a consequence, the tax bill for the homeowner cited in the example above will go up about $27 next year.</p><p>County Budget Director Michael Tomich explained that money would permit the sheriff to pay for Tallahassee-mandated hikes in the state's pension and health insurance programs.</p><p>Funding was also dedicated for the sheriff's share of operating the Public Safety Communications Center, where the County Commission just agreed to hire four new dispatchers to accommodate Blair's change in dispatching practices.</p><p>The move was also necessary because the Sheriff's Office, which has lived off its reserve funding since the onset of the recession, has exhausted that account, officials said.</p><p>Zalak argued that the tax rate ought to be reduced further with additional money being transferred from the general fund. He said the community's "anemic" economy needed a break from more expensive government.</p><p>"Government should be reduced and government should live within its means," Zalak said.</p><p>Bryant answered Zalak by saying she, too, opposed raising taxes, but the status quo was no longer feasible.</p><p>"It's where we are. We've been paying on MasterCard and now we have to pay the bill," Bryant said. "You're just prolonging the problem if we don't do what we have to do today. I don't know where you're going to get the money from."</p><p>"Moving forward, I think, it will be the correct course of action," she added.</p><p>The budget rift between Blair and commissioners opened in June, when Blair asked for a massive 26 percent spending hike. The other county-level elected officials, in contrast, submitted budgets that on average had increases of about 3 percent.</p><p>Ultimately, those officials trimmed their budgets to current levels or less.</p><p>Blair cut his budget request, too, halving it from $17 million to about $8 million a few weeks after his initial budget was submitted.</p><p>Afterward, he repeatedly announced he would not budge further.</p><p>As recently as two weeks ago, at the board's first required hearing on the budget, Blair announced that he made "no apology" for pushing for more money for the agency that he described as undermanned and ill-equipped.</p><p>What changed was that on Tuesday, a County Commission task force, named in July after Blair challenged the board to find the spending cuts he declined to look for, released a report setting his budget $2.2 million below the current year's total.</p><p>That apparently touched off some hectic negotiating that went on until hours before the commission's vote Thursday evening to adopt the $534 million spending plan for fiscal year 2014.</p><p>On Thursday afternoon, the board met in a hastily arranged meeting to discuss claims that Blair made in a letter released late Wednesday.</p><p>In criticizing the task force's recommendations, the sheriff had asserted that, under two separate state laws, the County Commission was prohibited from reducing his budget below last year's funding level, and that he was prevented from laying off Sheriff's Office personnel for fiscal reasons.</p><p>County Attorney Guy Minter told the board that both claims were meritless.</p><p>Minter noted verbally and in a three-page memo he prepared for the board that Blair specifically parsed language from both laws that would have undermined his case.</p><p>As for the board's ability to trim his budget, Minter wrote that if Blair were correct, "sheriff's offices would be the only agencies in the State of Florida that could never have a reduction in their budget compared to the prior year."</p><p>Obviously, he added, that's not the case, since Marion County, other local governments and the state itself have reduced spending since the onset of the recession.</p><p>Minter's findings on the issue of layoffs were similar.</p><p>Again, if Blair were right, the Sheriff's Office would be "unique" among government agencies in Florida, he wrote. Nothing, Minter added, prevented Blair from eliminating jobs as a component of the budget-making process.</p><p><i>Contact Bill Thompson at 867-4117 or bill.thompson@ocala.com.</i></p>